In our large archive of blog posts, we have several that discuss different cultural celebrations in Finland. These span from religious holidays to celebrations that are uniquely Finnish. In this blog post, we pull them together to form our Guide to Cultural Celebrations in Finland.
We have arranged our cultural blogs according to the season of the year. Then, at the very end, we include some additional cultural blogs that are not specific to a particular season.
We haven’t (yet) written a blog about every possible cultural celebration we have on the calendar. As we expand our collection we will add a link to this blog as well. But here are the ones we have available now.
Finnish cultural celebrations during the winter
After New Year’s, the first day that is meaningful for Finnis is Epiphany. That day, according to probably the majority of Finns, is the last day of Christmas. People take Christmas decorations down and bring their Christmas trees to stand next to their garbage disposal areas for garbage trucks to take them away.
For some Finns, however, Christmas really ends on January 13 which is Saint Knut’s day or nuutinpäivä in Finnish. In some areas of Western Finland along the coastline, children dress up and go from door to door collecting candy. This very much resembles Easter traditions in other areas of Finland and the very recently arrived Halloween trick-or-treating.
These early January traditions are Christian traditions as are the Shrovetide traditions taking place a little later in the year. The date of, for example, Shrove Sunday actually varies from year to year as it is connected to the date of Easter.
In February, there are other cultural celebrations that do not have a connection with Christianity. There’s Runeberg’s Day on February 5, the Sámi National Day on February 6, and Kalevala Day on February 28.
On a particular February day, you may run into truckloads of rowdy teens throwing candy around as they pass by. This is a tradition that is connected to Finnish upper secondary schools (lukio) and matriculation examinations taking place later in the spring. We explained these traditions in this blog.
Cultural celebrations in Finland during the spring
In the spring, we have again a mixture of religious and cultural celebrations. On March 19, we celebrate Minna Canth and gender equality. We have written two separate blogs in connection with this date. In the first, we discuss the effects of the then-new corona pandemic on the Finnish labor market from the point of view of gender equality. We wrote this in March 2020, just when the pandemic hit in full force. We followed that blog with a new one a year later to discuss some of those same issues but now with a longer perspective.
In April, another ethnic minority in Finland celebrates its own distinctive culture and language. The International Roma Day is on April 8. As we explain in our blog commemorating that day, the Roma have been in Finland at least from the 1500s. Like the Sámi, they have been (and still continue to be) subjected to different types of discrimination including housing and employment discrimination.
We have not written a blog about the major Christian celebration of Easter that takes place in the spring. The only religious event or celebration happening in the spring that we have written about is Ascension Day. We highlighted that day instead of Easter because for some employees in Finland that is a day off from work and for some it isn’t. We explain the reason for this difference in our blog.
Before Ascension Day, however, we celebrate vappu aka May Day. Those celebrations are very visible as people go around in their white hats. These celebrations are also quite alcohol-laced and rowdy. We explain the historical roots and the modern significance of the day in this blog. As alcohol usually plays a role in Finnish celebrations, we’ve written a few blogs about Finnish alcohol consumption as well. But more about that a little later.
Summer and Midsummer
The summer season is actually quite void of religious celebrations or holidays. The only one that we really have is Midsummer. And as we explain in our Midsummer blog, its connection to Christianity, or at least the connection between modern ways of celebrating it and Christianity, is quite tenuous.
Just a few years ago you would have been hard-pressed to find many Finns celebrating Midsummer in the city. Although this has changed somewhat in recent years, Finns still tend to do a vanishing act on Midsummer. And we have data to prove it. We discussed this vanishing act in this blog.
Although we don’t have that many cultural days of note during the summer, summer still offers several ways to get to know Finland, Finns, and Finnish culture. For example, in this blog we explain what goes on in a typical Finnish summer. High on that list are summer weddings. We’ve written a cultural guide on those in case you get an invitation to one. We also provide you with a survival guide in case you will visit a Finnish summer house that lacks indoor plumbing.
We’ve also given you tips on how to find great places for swimming in Finland during the summer. And we’ve suggested how, during the summer, you can eat your way through Finland.
As summer turns to fall, a lot of Finns gather around to have crayfish parties. These parties have their own etiquette but don’t fret. We explain that etiquette here.
Some light in the darkness
The fall season can be really miserable because of the rain and the darkness. Halloween parties at the end of October provide something to celebrate amidst the darkness. However, Halloween parties in Finland tend to only take place in daycare centers and schools. Dressing up as witches, Marvel characters, or zombies is a very recent addition to events around All Saints’ Day and very much a child-centered activity. All Saints’ Day, however, is an old celebration in Finland. In this blog, we talk about the connection between Halloween and All Saints’ Day. We describe the traditions that are connected to the latter in Finland.
As you will discover from the blog above, Halloween and All Saints’ Day have a connection with the old harvest festival kekri. Finns do take advantage of what the Finnish forests have to offer. In this blog, we give you some tips on how you can join the fun. If you don’t want to go into the forests and pick berries and mushrooms yourself, you can still make the bilberry pie mentioned in the blog from store-bought berries.
If you are interested in learning more about Finnish nature, we have an online video course on it. You can find it here. Included in the course is a 30-page recipe booklet that contains delicious recipes for ingredients from Finnish nature.
Earlier in the year, the Roma minority and the Sámi have their own commemorative days. In the fall, instead, there is the Finnish-Swedish Heritage Day on November 6. On that day, we celebrate the Swedish-speaking population of Finland and bilingualism in Finland. In the blog about the day, we briefly explain the history of the Swedish language in Finland. We also talk about its connection with Finnish nation-building in the late 19th century and early 20th century.
Cultural celebrations in Finland at the end of the year
As the fall turns into the Christmas season in late November, workplaces in Finland start having their annual Christmas parties. In this blog, we describe what you can expect from those parties.
December 6 is the Finnish Independence Day. Contrary to a lot of other countries, Finnish independence day celebrations are quite solemn. They also feature a curious ritual of watching the President’s independence day reception on TV. In our blog on the Finnish Independence Day, we talk about the reception. We explain why Finnish politicians picked December 6 as the day to celebrate Finnish independence (there were other suggestions). We also talk about the role of war imagery in Finnish independence day celebrations.
A week after Independence Day is Saint Lucy’s Day. This celebration is strongly connected to the Swedish-speaking Finns.
In Finland, as elsewhere, important religious and cultural celebrations have their own specific foods that go along with that celebration. This is naturally the case with Christmas as well. We have a blog about traditional Finnish Christmas foods and a downloadable recipe booklet that goes with it. You can find it here.
Some additional blogs about Finnish culture
In addition to blogs explaining and describing specific religious and cultural celebrations in Finland, we have also written about Finnish culture in general.
We start perhaps with the most important one: sauna. If you’ve lived in Finland for more than five minutes, you’ve run into one. You’ve probably been to one, enjoyed it, and perhaps even made it a regular feature of your week. You might not, however, be familiar with these 5 sauna facts we present in this blog. We wrote it in celebration of the Finnish sauna culture when it was added to UNESCO’s Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.
As we mentioned above in connection with May Day, Finns do have a curious relationship with alcohol. Or at least we have a reputation of having a curious relationship with alcohol. We’ve addressed this in two separate blogs. In this first one, we specifically address the basis of this reputation. Do Finns actually drink more than others? So, we talk about quantities and the types of alcoholic beverages Finns drink. In the second one, we discuss Finnish drinking habits. When do we drink and with whom?
Alcohol is not the only thing we drink a lot of. Anyone who’s spent anytime in Finland knows that coffee is an essential part of Finnish social life. In this blog post, we discuss social conventions around coffee and invitations to have coffee.
A third myth or characteristic often associated with Finns and Finnish culture is our purported need for plenty of personal space. Although myth-busting is not really our line of work, addressing cultural stereotypes of any kind is. In this blog, we try to examine whether there is any research to back up the claim that we in Finland very clearly need more personal space than others.
Talking about personal space and keeping your distance, apartment building work parties can really present a conundrum. Luckily, we have written a blog that allows you to navigate this minefield should you be faced with it in the future.
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